Precise picture hanger

ABSTRACT

A hanger having a body that includes a slot located in the body and a hook attached to the body. The body is adapted to hold a picture or a mirror when attached to a wall with a screw located in the slot.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/073,868 filed on Jun. 19, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a picture hanger and more specifically to a picture hanger that can be moved in any direction.

2. Description of Related Art

When hanging a picture, it is usually held against the wall at the desired location and a mark is made on the wall that indicates the location of a hook over which the cord on the back of the picture is to be positioned. A person places a pencil mark on the wall to mark where a hook should be placed. Then a hook having a fastener such as a nail is mounted on the wall by hammering the fastener into the wall. The picture is placed against the wall and the picture wire is placed on the hook.

Usually the wire at the rear of the picture straightens due to the weight of the picture when it is placed on the hook, it is not uncommon for the picture to hang either too low or high, or even too far to the left or right than that which was desired.

Thus, the hook must be taken out of the wall and the procedure repeated to correct the error which resulted because of the difficulty in correctly determining the place on the wall where the picture hook should be placed.

It is not uncommon to attach and remove a picture hook from a wall several times before the correct location for the hook is found. Thus, not only is the process time consuming and sometimes very frustrating, but the numerous tries leaves unnecessary holes in the wall.

What is needed is a picture hook device that can be moved while still being attached to the wall.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is disclosed a hanger having a body that includes a slot located in the body and a hook attached to the body. The body is adapted to hold a picture or a mirror when attached to a wall when a screw is located in the slot.

The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, the preferred feature of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention and that such other structures do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claim, and the accompanying drawings in which similar elements are given similar reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a front plan view of a picture hanger in accordance with the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the picture hanger of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3-8 show the various steps of attaching the picture hanger of FIG. 1 to a wall; and

FIG. 9 is a front view of the picture hanger of FIG. 1 being moved to a new position while being attached to a wall.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a front plan view of the picture hanger that can be moved to correct for an error in positioning by up to 4 inches more or less vertically, horizontally or at any angle there between.

The picture hanger 10, in one embodiment, has a flat disk shaped body 12 of plastic or metal that can be between 1 inch and 4½ inches in diameter where the preferred diameter is about 3 inches and the disk is one sixteenth of an inch, more or less, in thickness. The disk includes a slot 14 centrally positioned having a length of about 2 inches and a width of about one-eighth of an inch. Aligned with the slot 14 is a hook 16, more clearly shown in FIG. 2, having a shaft 18 that is attached at one end to the disk 12 and at its other end to a head member 20 that can be round, square or any shape other than round or square. The hook 16 is about ¼ of an inch in diameter and is composed of the same material as the disk. The hook is adapted to hold a wire at the rear of a picture or a mirror. It is understood that the size of the diameter of the disk and the length and width of the slot in the disk can be increased or decreased and that the actual dimensions are not critical.

Referring to FIG. 10, there is shown a front view of another embodiment where the picture hanger 22 has a rectangular body 24 of plastic or metal that has a length of about 3 inches and a width of about one inch. The rectangular body has a slot 26 centrally positioned in the rectangular body and having a length of about 2 inches and a width of about one-eighth of an inch. Aligned with slot 26 is a hook 28 having a shaft attached at one end to rectangular member 24 and at its other end to a head member that can be round, square or any shape other than round or square. It is understood that the length and width of rectangular body 24 and the length and width of slot 26 in rectangular body can be increased or decreased and that the actual dimensions are not critical.

In operation, when a person wants to hang a picture on a wall, an approximate location is selected which, with this picture hanger, can be off by up to 2 inches more or less in any direction, Looking at FIG. 2, a spot 30 on a wall 32, which in most houses is dry wall, is selected as the place that the attaching member of the picture hanger is to be located. At this spot a self tapping wall anchor 34 is inserted into the wall, see FIG. 3. A screw 36, such as a No. 6 screw, is inserted into the self tapping wall anchor 34 and tightened firmly, see FIGS. 5 and 6. The screw 36 is then removed, see FIG. 7, and the picture hanger 10 is attached to the wall by inserting the screw 36 into the slot 14 and threading the screw 36 into the self tapping wall anchor 34, see FIG. 8.

Referring to FIG. 9, with the screw 36 loose, picture hanger 10 can be moved along the wall 32 in any direction as shown by the arrows by rotating the body either clockwise or counter-clockwise and moving the body relative to the screw to locate the hook 16 to the proper position.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes of the form and details of the apparatus illustrated and in the operation may be done by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention. 

1. A hanger comprising: a body; a slot located in said body; and a hook attached to said body; wherein said body is adapted to be attached to a wall with a screw located in said slot.
 2. The hanger of claim 1 wherein said body is flat.
 3. The hanger of claim 2 wherein said body is a disk.
 4. The hanger of claim 3 wherein said slot is rectangular.
 5. The hanger of claim 4 wherein said hook is attached to said disk and is aligned with the rectangular slot.
 6. The hanger of claim 5 wherein the hook is a shaft with a head on an end.
 7. The hanger of claim 6 wherein said head is round.
 8. The hanger of claim 6 wherein said head is square.
 9. The hanger of claim 6 wherein said disk has a diameter of 3 inches.
 10. The hanger of claim 9 wherein said disk has a diameter of between 3 and 4½ inches.
 11. The hanger of claim 9 where in said disk has a diameter of between 1 and 3 inches.
 12. The hanger of claim 2 wherein said body is plastic.
 13. The hanger of claim 2 wherein said body is metal.
 14. The hanger of claim 2 wherein said body has a rectangular shape.
 15. The hanger of claim 14 wherein said slot is aligned with a length of said rectangular shape.
 16. The hanger of claim 15 wherein said hook is aligned with said slot.
 17. The hanger of claim 3 wherein said hook is adapted to receive a wire attached to the rear of a picture.
 18. The hanger of claim 3 wherein said hook is adapted to receive a wire attached to the rear of a mirror. 